Wake County Republicans are making it clear that they're going to push neighborhood schools in this fall's school board elections.

In an op-ed piece submitted by Wake GOP Chairman Claude Pope, he is stressing the party's support of candidates who will back a "neighborhood-centric assignment policy."

While school board elections are officially non-partisan, that's more myth than reality. Both the Republicans and Democrats have thrown money and organizational support behind candidates over the years.

UPDATE

Fixed link for Pope's op-ed piece. 

There's a war of words between some school board members over Wake's diversity policy.

School board member Ron Margiotta and four community members fired the initial shot in February with an open letter calling for an end to the diversity policy in favor of neighborhood schools. As evidence, the letter cites Charlotte-Mecklenburg's academic performance compared to Wake.

Kevin Hill, vice chairman of the school board, has responded with his defense of the diversity policy. While Hill stresses it's only his personal opinion, he shared his letter with other board members before attending last week's UNC Conference.

So Wake is saying that no one is assigned to a school 20 miles from home.

"I don't know of a single child assigned to a school 20 miles away — not one," said Asst. Supt. Chuck Dulaney in the latest issue of In Context, the weekly newsletter of the Wake Education Partnership.

That sure would come as a surprise to some folks. For instance, nodes 51.0 and 444.4.

The second speaker at Thursday's conference was Sean Reardon, an associate professor at Stanford University and co-author of a paper on the effects of socioeconomic school integration plans on racial school desegregation.

Reardon describes Wake as having a stronger SES policy than most districts that say they have one. He said Wake's policy does a "good job of substituting for a race-based plan."

As promised, here's the first part of the audio of Thursday's Civil Rights conference panel on "Evaluating Socioeconomic Based Student Assignment Plans."

I apologize for the quality of the audio. Some of the speakers will be easier to hear than others.

Also, I was unable to get permission from UNC to post either the handouts or the research papers prepared by the panelists.

In case you missed it, today's Sunday Forum includes some Q&As on Wake's diversity policy in advance of this week's UNC Center for Civil Rights conference on school resegregation.

As the articles note, Wake enjoys a national reputation for its diversity policy. Eric Houck, one of the presenters at this week's conference and former research director for the Wake Education Partnership, said in his interview that he's surprised more local people don't recognize Wake's reputation.

"One thing people in Wake County may not realize is just what kind of reputation Wake has nationally as an innovator and as a high-performing school district," Houck said in the Q&A with Rob Waters. "I'm surprised at how little weight that reputation seems to carry in your internal discussions."

Wake's diversity policy will get a lot of attention next week.

Three separate events will focus sympathetically on Wake's socioeconomic diversity efforts. The first will be Wednesday, when the Coalition of Concerned Citizens For African American Children holds a forum entitled "Understanding the Need for Socioeconomic and Racial Diversity."

"We call on citizens, parents, educators who care about the welfare of all students to please come out to the April 1st meeting in support of the WCPSS Diversity policy that is designed to provide the best possible learning environment to all Wake County students," according to the coalition's press release. "Join us to learn how racial/economic diversity will impact our election of WCSPSS School Board Members in October."

It's time to play another installment of the waiting on the state Supreme Court game.

Folks will be seeing if the court issues the year-round ruling today. Decisions are generally posted around 11:30 a.m.

You'll want to check here and here.

UPDATE

No ruling today. The next possible date is May 1 so consent forms will now likely have to go out.

Two early starters have indicated they plan to run for school board this year.

Both men filed paperwork with the Wake County Board of Elections to form candidate committees. They'll have to submit paperwork when the official candidate filing period begins July 3.

Otis Tyrone Lindsey has indicated he'll run for the District 1 seat being vacated by Lori Millberg. Ray E. Martin has filed paperwork for the District 9 seat being vacated by Eleanor Goettee.

I expect you guys want to comment on today's column by Ruth Sheehan about Thursday's meeting on Wake's diversity policy.

Ruth noted how the white parents from the Wake Schools Community Alliance expressed concern about poor minority children being bused too far and served too poorly by the Wake County schools.

Ruth juxtaposed them with the black parents, teachers and students who expressed some frustrations with busing but said that on the whole, the diversity policy is worth it.

"It was unclear to me how well either group represents the majority of parents," Ruth writes in the column. "Also an open question: how much either side listened to, or learned from, the other. To resolve these issues will take open minds and hearts — not to mention, a lot more meetings. And perhaps a lively election."